True/False 2008: Fifth Year Features Include STRANDED, MOSQUITO PROBLEM, HOLD ME TIGHT and the True Vision Award to Alex Gibney

Festival coverage sponsored by IndiePix.

In less than three weeks, the fifth edition of the True/False Film Festival will unspool in Columbia, Missouri, featuring an exciting line-up of international documentaries as well as favorites from Sundance, Toronto and Slamdance.  The festival will present its sole prize - the True Vision Award - to Alex Gibney (who very well may have picked up an Academy Award less than a week prior), screening both GONZO: THE LIFE AND WORK OF HUNTER S. THOMPSON and the Oscar nominated TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE.

While celebrating its anniversary, the festival is also facing a number of changes due to the remodeling of its central venue - the Missouri Theatre, as well as the long-awaited opening of the new two-screen Ragtag Cinemacafe.  The new Ragtag is set to open a week before the festival with a screening of Todd Haynes' I'M NOT THERE, a nod to the first film screened at the original Ragtag, Haynes' SUPERSTAR.  In addition to the new Ragtag, screenings will be held in three new venues on the nearby campus of Stephens College.  With the added venues, True/False will be screening films more than once, a change from previous editions.

As is tradition with T/F, a number of films are coming straight from Sundance, including Nanette Burstein's AMERICAN TEEN, Margaret Brown's THE ORDER OF MYTHS and the aforementioned GONZO.  Gonzalo Arijon's STRANDED: I'VE COME FROM A PLANE THAT'S CRASHED IN THE MOUNTAINS, which screened in Park City and won the top prize at IDFA in November, is scheduled to be one of several opening night films.  The closing night film is yet to be announced.

STRANDED is also a highlight of a strong slate of international titles that includes Anna Broinowski's FORBIDDEN LIES (Australia), Aitor Arregi and Jose Maria Goenaga's LUCIO (Spain), Stefan Schwietert's ECHOES OF HOME (Switzerland) as well as Kim Longinotto's acclaimed HOLD ME TIGHT, LET ME GO (UK) and the Andrey Paounov's THE MOSQUITO PROBLEM AND OTHER STORIES (Bulgaria), which I named as one of the ten best nonfiction films I saw in 2007.

True/False co-director David Wilson told me Thursday, "I feel really good about the non-US titles we are showing.  I feel that we've been very successful in finding films that are gorgeous and great examples of a particular kind of nonfiction storytelling."

While True/False eschews buying into the festival premiere game (and works with other festivals to screen films that are due to have their premieres elsewhere), a cursory look at the True/False line-up suggests more than a dozen film that will have their first screenings (or first US screenings) in Columbia. 

A couple of last year's most successful additions to the fest will return this year: the March March, a parade through the streets of Columbia featuring the punk rock marching band Mucca Pazza, and the festivals SWAMI Program, in which industry vets meet for a series of one-on-one discussions with first-time docmakers with films in the festival.  This year's SWAMIS include Debra Zimmerman from Women Make Movies, John and Janet Pierson, indieWIRE's Eugene Hernandez, consultant Peter Broderick, Ryan Harrington from the Tribeca Gucci Doc Fund and filmmaker (and Cinema Eye Honors nominee) Esther B. Robinson.  The fest also plans to expand its annual Gimme Truth game show to a full televised production, complete with studio audience and multi-camera shoot.

For a full list of this year's True/False titles, visit their website.  We will be in Columbia for a full series of reports on the films of this year's edition of the fest.

Comments

[Arne]

Well AJ, I'm psyched to see that we'll be debating each other in person finally at True/False!

Although I imagine the subject of that panel won't lead to much disagreement...i was hoping we'd end up in the ethics argument, much more juicy.